The Big Unplug
I posted this on my personal Facebook account yesterday morning:
I want to see what life is like without a (personal) Facebook account for a while. Seems the teenagers are doing fine (http://mashable.com/2013/08/11/teens-facebook/). I’m going to nuke my account (from orbit) this evening (it’s the only way to be sure). You can find me at https://ggr.com/ and scott@ggr.com. See you on the other side!
It was funny to see everyone’s responses. A couple people pointed out that most of my posts were Runkeeper jog updates, implying that they won’t be missing out on much as I journey into the Facebook abyss. Fair enough. :)
The hardest part of deleting my account was moving the apps over to my work Facebook account. I still develop apps that integrate with Facebook, so I need to have accounts to test with even if I’m no longer spamming my friends and family with pictures from my morning jog. It turns out before you can activate developer powers on a Facebook account it must be verified via phone via text message. I’ve been meaning to give T-Mobile another try, so last night I stopped by my local T-Mobile, picked up a nano-SIM with some credits for $23, borrowed Catherine’s sim unlocked phone, entered the number into Facebook’s mobile verifier, got the text, verified my account, then gave my work account admin powers on the various apps. Whew!
For those interested, here are the steps I took:
- downloaded a backup of all my Facebook data
- created a new Facebook account for work
- bought a prepaid phone number and used it to verify my new account
- from my old account, invited my new account to be an admin on all my Facebook apps and pages
- deleted my account
Facebook let me know I have 14 days to cancel the emergency destruct system. I wonder if and when they’ll actually have deleted my data and all its backups. Props to Facebook for making the process relatively easy.